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Page 6 WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICALSOCIETY May 1994 FEATURE PRESENTATION REPORT THE VANCOUVER PUBLIC AQUARIUM By: Anne Vernon Our Speaker at the March 24 meeting, Dr Murray Newman, now retired from running the Vancouver Aquarium, is the author of “Life In A Fishbowl: Confessions of an Aquarium Director” (reviewed on page 8). Born and raised in Chicago, Murray completed his Bachelor's degree in Chicago, obtained his Master's degree in Zoology atthe University of California at Berkley and pursued his Ph. D. at UBC at which point he became associated with the Aquarium. A resident of West Vancouver for the past 32 years, Murray has been awarded the Order of Canada, the first ever H.R. MacMillan Fellowship and named as one of West Vancouver’s Achievers during our 75 th birthday celebrations. Dr Newman told us that from his earliest days he was fascinated by fish - much to his father’s concern, “How can you make a life around fish?” During his University days however, he found his studies veering in that direction and he eventually took degrees in this subject. His time in the U.S. Navy added to this interest. In the 1950’s Dr Newman found himself in Vancouver and, due mainly to the interest and advice of Dr Clements, Head of UBC’s Zoological Department, began his long career with the Vancouver Public Aquarium. At the beginning, of course, it was only an idea fostered by a few enlightened people who wanted to put an aquarium “somewhere” in Stanley Park to help educate local school children about the importance of one of B.C.’s main assets -the sea around us and the life it contains. Until recently, few people had then realised that the waters around B.C. contain the largest selection of marine life in the Northwest Pacific, There followed many meetings with Parks Board, various interested citizens and much deliberation followed! It was eventually decided to allow an aquarium to be built beside Stanley Park Zoo and so a small building was erected. There was little money and few people available but, with a great deal of good will and even more hard work, all was completed in time and on June 15th, 1956, the North Shore’s Jimmy Sinclair, Minister of Fisheries at that time, opened The Vancouver Riblic Aquarium. Surely none of the people who were present on that day, including Dr Newman himself, could have visualised the wonderful Aquarium of the 1990’s or the incredible efforts put into the work by so many thousands of volunteers which have made the whole thing possible. Over the years many eminent people gave their support, financially and otherwise - the Aquariiun takes a pride in always having been self-supporting. There were expeditions to various parts of the world - Mexico for over 12 years, when the Marijean, an old converted minesweeper was home to the many scientists and volunteers who were involved in collecting various specimens. Dr Newman knew that he wanted the Aquarium to have a much wider scope and in 1960, when he attended the first Congress of Aquariology in Cannes, run by Jacques Cousteau, he afterwards went on to the Berlin Aquarium and London’s British Museum and came back filled with many visions and ideas. In the aquatic world it was a time of change: the B.C. Department of Fisheries were interested in seals, sealions, dolphins and killer whales and the international public got their first taste of marine circuses. In B.C., Satuma Island was chosen as the base for an expedition which aimed to catch a killer whale for study. An old Norwegian whaling harpoon was acquired, much practising was done and eventually the expedition harpooned an adult killer whale but, unexpectedly, the whale lived!! Suddenly the scientists were faced with an entirely new problem - they had a live, but injured, specimen on their hands. Interested medical men arrived and, with a great deal of trepidation (for it was believed that Orcas really were killers), the whale was anaesthetized and the harpoon removed. She was named Moby Doll. After much deliberation and media coverage Moby Doll was towed to Burrard Dry dock where she was penned and caused all work to stop. Over 2000 people came to see her. The Military detachment at Jericho offered their help and within 7 days demolished the old Jericho dock and built a new large sea pen for her. The Navy donated old listening devices and, for the first time, it was realised that whales spoke. The Vancouver Aquarium was famous - it even had a Readers Digest article written about it. Moby Doll caused a few problems - one of which was refusing to eat but Jack Davis solved that problem for everyone during a personal visit by feeding her by hand - a courageous deed and a worldwide first! This was the beginning of Vancouver’s lifelong love for and fascination with Orcas - with Skana, Kyak et al and the model of Moby Doll which hangs at the entrance, as well as Bill Reid’s marvellous sculpture of a leaping Orca outside the Aquarium, reflects that feeling for most of us. Of course many other mammals are part of the Aquarium - dolphins, belugas and, the darlings of us all, the otters, as well as the huge collection of fish and small creatures which are on display in the various gallerips - but to find out more about what has happened to The Vancouver Riblic Aquarium over the past almost 50 years you must first visit there and then read Dr Murray Newman’s book.